When will people get this point. People like Hopkins want you to tweet your fury at her words. She functions in an outrage economy and your anger is her income. Ignore her and she goes out of business.
The one thing I'm struck by is how few Tory MPs mention what they think is best for the country. They talk almost entirely in terms of what is right for their party
The British public has to stop it with the gotcha questions. It has behaved disgracefully at these press briefings. When this is over there will be a reckoning for the British public.
Chris Bryant speech being heard in dead silence. It is quietly brutal and exposes the shamelessness of what is going on. Many Tories who do as they are told today, will know this.
The greatest tragedy is that all those people who really needed a Labour government were abandoned and betrayed by cultists who cared much more about indulging their own ideological projects than about the normal people who needed them to be electable
Every time I hear someone in Government saying, we need the freedom from state aid rules so ministers handing out subsidies can decide which start-ups might become world-beating tech companies, I just think - How's that track and trace app coming.
A city should not be celebrating slavery. Whatever the mores of Colston's time, this should be obvious now. Bristol should have removed it years ago. Wish this had been a legal civic decision but can't say I'm sorry it's gone.
Seems like the Brexit party's whole strategy now is just to seek controversy so they stay in the news. they are the piers morgan of politics and they want you to react
Three points on Rwanda policy.
1) Last year Australia spent £461m to process 239 asylum seekers offshore
2) The UK is spending £120m
3) 600 people crossed the Channel on Wednesday
So either this is a stunt, to deter and ease political pressure or a lot more money will be needed
The Prime Minister has announced her planned resignation. She has not spoken to the country; she has not told parliament; she has told a closed meeting of Tory MPs and released a text. May in a nutshell
The Gordon Brown interview not only highlights his qualities but also the loss of all the experienced Tories pushed out of the party who might have been useful. This really is an ingenue cabinet
Priti Patel joins the cabinet ministers singling out north london liberals for attack. But what about the poor old south London liberals, what have they done to deserve the cold shoulder.
Govt attitute to exam results v similar to the way it saw the virus coming but did not move quickly. In March it watched Italy and did not react. This time it saw Scotland's exam example and again froze in the headlights.
Johnson now in the worst possible place. Burned up good will and political capital to save Cummings. Govt seriously damaged by this. But he'll be humiliated if he lets him go now and it's far too late to get credit for doing so. Rock & a hard place
I get why people are saying the UK looks ridiculous obsessing over parties in the middle of issues like Ukraine.
BUT actually I like the look of a country whose leaders get into trouble if they don't observe the laws they impose on others. And the lockdown laws were not minor
Tory MP on May in SunTimes: "The moment is coming when the knife gets heated, stuck in her front and twisted. She'll be dead soon". What kind of person talks like this?
This is pretty dishonest. The court actually said goods from West Bank Israeli settlements should indicate this rather than simply say Made in Israel. Your misuse of antisemitism and holocaust references shames you and devalues those fighting real antisemitism in Europe.
The European Union’s top court has issued a mandate to label Jewish goods.
This is the equivalent of putting a yellow star on every Jewish-made product.
Anti-semitism has no place in the world and the E.U. should be ashamed!
Those demanding the tearing down of Gladstone, Peel & Churchill are shooting their own campaign in the foot & rallying even sympathisers to the other side. It will build a backlash and vindicate those who depict you as a cultural Taliban. Absolutism is the true enemy of progress
V good idea from
@DanNeidle
Any “letter before action” threatening libel action could be required to be accompanied by a “statement of truth”. The claimant would have to say, under threat of perjury, that the statements in the letter are correct.
This seems symptomatic of what is wrong with our politics. We all know he doesn't believe this and that privately he's probably spitting tacks , but hey the game is the game
I know how ill coronavirus makes you. It was entirely right for Dom Cummings to find childcare for his toddler, when both he and his wife were getting ill.
Protecting one’s family is what any good parent does. The
@10DowningStreet
statement clarifies the situation and it is wholly inappropriate to politicise it.
He's right. The media was far too slow to lock down the country. They left NHS staff without protective equipment and badly let down care home residents.
Most of the media has acted disgracefully during this crisis.
The public want a calm, measured analysis.
People are sick of ‘gotcha’ journalism in search of embarrassing politicians.
The blame game needs to wait!
The opposition parties need to refuse to participate in the new committee - to let it be seen as a committee of Tory MPs sitting in judgement on themselves
What is depressing about this is that an agriculture secretary thought a trade deal sold out UK farmers but preferred to stay in his job and defend it anyway
Here's that extraordinary Eustice admission that the post-Brexit trade deal with Australia, signed when he was environment secretary, "is not actually a very good deal for the UK." He says DIT - led at the time by Truss - "gave away far too much for far too little in return".
So basically an SNP day designed to expose Labour divisions and undermine Starmer ended up with a Labour amendment securing the first Commons call for a ceasefire on Gaza. No wonder SNP and Tories furious. Starmer really is a lucky general.
This is a genuinely shocking moment. Tories could have opted to cut Paterson's penalty, which would have been bad enough. Instead they have concluded that an independent system which finds against their chum is too independent
Just thinking that the sad focus on Alistair Darling today - his intelligence, integrity and decency - will remind people how far British politics has fallen in the last decade
No question that the Home Office is institutionally flawed but the Conservatives have been in power for 12 years, this leader for nearly three. The last Perm Sec at Home Office was ousted 2 years ago. At what point do Tories take responsibility for what happens on their watch?
I do think Boris hasn't got enough credit for flying back from the Caribbean holiday he was taking while parliament was sitting to come and save the conservative party. And he flew economy. Some people just don't appreciate the public service ethos than runs deep in our leaders,
David Starkey has now lost:
- Two university jobs
- His book deal
- Board position at
@MaryRoseMuseum
He stands to also lose:
- His honours (per
@thetimes
)
- Two honorary degrees
If this was meant to be a feisty battle in the marketplace of ideas, he's been absolutely pummelled
The astonishing thing about the Tories/BBC/flags row is the extent to which those mocking don't understand just how totally they are losing this argument.
There was no way PM was going to let this force him to sack Patel, but by making a mockery of the entire process, he's made it a bigger story than it would have been had he accepted the report, given her a reprimand and made her apologise more fully.
BREAKING - Brexit deal is done. Or not. But nearly. Press conference tonight. Or tomorrow. Really early. Or later. Sources say it is totally in the bag, but sources caution it could still slip through our fingers at the last minute
This from
@stephenkb
- is the key point on this week's antisemitism row. It's not that either RLB or Maxine Peake are antisemites; it is that they don't understand this issue and don't have the antennae for this particular trope that they have for many others.
Pictures can be deceptive but there do appear to be a fair few Nazi salutes from those assembling to defend Churchill. Somehow don't think its down to the famous English sense of irony.
Today I am being lambasted by Boris Johnson's defenders for being too mean to him, and his opponents for being too kind. This must be what it is like working for the BBC.
Just been reminded of Edward Carson's 1921 line: "What a fool I was! I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conservative Party into Power".
Wow. Wonder if Tories and their media supporters have thought through the consequences of encouraging law-breaking in protest against policies you dislike
As Derek Hatton returns to the Labour Party, here is Neil Kinnock taking on the Militant Tendency in Bournemouth, 1985
"I’ll tell you what happens with impossible promises..."
I understand why it is happening but I hate the way everyone keeps stressing the underlying conditions in coronavirus deaths as if somehow that means they don’t mater
Just one observation on Jackie Weaver. If more journalists had ever spent any time covering parish councils (them were the days) they would be a lot less surprised at the simmering hatred, standing on ceremony and obsession with standing orders.
And then
@navalny
was arrested at passport control. He said farewell to his wife before being taken away. I guess he is accused of having survived the authorities attempt to kill him.
Question for the day: If you believe that the BBC - or say the judiciary - can suffer from systemic and structural liberal bias, why is it so hard to believe that other institutions can be infected with systemic and structural racism.
Interesting Regev cites that Rabin, was shot for his efforts to make peace with Palestinians, but seems to forget that he was shot by a right-wing Israeli and that one of those extremists who called for his death is now in the Israeli cabinet
"Why should they be prohibited from having exactly the same rights as the state of Israel?"
Piers Morgan questions senior advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu, Mark Reghev, after the Israeli ambassador said that a two-state solution is not possible.
@piersmorgan
|
@MarkRegev
|
#pmu
My hunch now is that if Corbyn committed Labour to a second ref as its primary position, that the peoples vote would quite quickly command a majority in the Commons.
The UK is going to need to rethink some of its post Brexit myths and visions. Global Britain has got more local again.
Ukraine marks an end to Brexit illusions
We are all viewing Trump trade statement as a Brexit intervention. But the bigger picture here is Trump's desire to weaken the EU as a trading block. That's why he told Macron to leave and why he wants UK to do so. This is not an idle aside, it is US trade strategy.
Genuinely terrifying to see the total equanimity with which Trump’s henchmen are happy to spray out they know are false and inflammatory claims to try to cling onto power. Even if it comes to nothing this time a Rubicon has been crossed
People need to keep cool. This is not a Trump moment. Johnson is breaking no rules by trying to tough it out (and can argue he recently survived a confidence vote). He is daring his cowardly party to pull the trigger. When they do, he'll go.
The editor of the Jewish Chronicle, supposedly the voice of Anglo-Jewry, should be better than someone glorifying in death which he must know cannot only be Hamas fighters. This is not a soccer match.
Some years ago I opined that London was not really an English city any more
Since then, virtually all my friends from abroad have confirmed my observation
So there must be some truth in it...
I note also that London was the UK city that voted most strongly to remain in the EU
Matt, I am a British Jew and I have been upset by some scenes in recent weeks. Israel divides our communities. But Islamophobia is real and dangerous and leaders should care about it. And btw too many of those who are anti-Muslim can find some hate in their heart for Jews too.
Imagine you're a British Jew. You've just witnessed the worst atrocities against Jews since World War Two. And then a wave of anti-Semitic & pro-Hamas chants on Britain's streets. And now your national leaders fall over themselves to warn the country about "Islamophobia".
Whatever position you take on Gaza it seems hard to reconcile the official Labour position that Kate Osamor was beyond the pale but an apology is good enough for the Rochdale candidate Azhar Ali
It seems a measure of how much trouble America is in that people who think Trump is guilty argue it is too risky to prosecute him.
How far gone are you when sane people argue it is safer not to enforce the law?
There are three camps on this: those who already hate Cummings and will never accept any defence; those who love him and will defend regardless; and the third group which will decide on the issue itself very few of whom seem to be on twitter.
Striking how much time Boris Johnson has spent in southern Tory seats in recent days. Either he thinks the red wall targets are in the bag or he is more worried about losses in remainer seats than he has been letting on.
A thought experiment. Imagine a left-wing MP called for Parliament to be prorogued to force through an ultra radical agenda for which Labour had no majority. Newspaper front pages would scream about a Corbynite authoritarian plot to stage a coup d'etat to destroy democracy.
The peerless
@pmdfoster
has written a book coldly critiquing all that has gone wrong with Brexit. Dan Hannan really doesn't think you should read it
What Went Wrong With Brexit by Peter Foster: myopic and drab
I love the idea of the police suddenly giving damning evidence to Sue Gray. "While proceeding along the the main corridor I noticed a criminal offence which I've only just got round to mentioning"
The more I think about the government answer on 24 hours vaccination centres - "there's no demand for it" the sillier it sounds. Hello madam we have a drug that will save your life. Well, ok but only between 8am and 8pm. But your appointment is 11pm. Oh no love I'll leave it then